[Todd Bradford, our faithful Director of Maintenance passed away peacefully with his family by his side on July 14 following an eight month battle with an undiagnosed spinal chord condition that left him immobilized. Our prayers are with Todd’s family and his many loved ones during this time of sorrow. Sunday’s sermon was about dancing. The writer of Ecclesiastes reminds us that there’s a time to dance and a time to mourn. We mourn the passing of Todd Bradford and yet we also remember the good news of our faith that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord, not even death. As our closing hymn reminded us, “...and the dance goes on.”]
O God, your Spirit calls us to sing and dance for joy and there are other times, when your Spirit calls us to cry out to you because of heavy hearts. And so, we begin this prayer with deep sadness because of the recent news of Todd’s passing.
For the past several months we have been praying for Todd’s healing and we were all hoping for a different outcome. We are reminded with this news about Todd of our own mortality and of the mystery of life and death. O God, it’s in moments like this where we cry out to you and offer to you our pain. This is one of those times where we really need to trust you through all of this.
And so, our hearts especially go out to Todd’s wife, Christy; to their children, Mikayla and Evan; and to the entire Bradford family in the midst of their sorrow and grief.
Even as our hearts are weighed down with this sad news, I think of all of the many ways Todd was such a blessing to our church. Everything from fine tuning the boiler so that we would have heat in the winter, to changing out Air Conditioner filters to cool us on hot and humid days, to hanging banners in front of our church, and all of the countless things he did behind the scenes, we are so grateful that he was an important part of our church family.
I’m grateful, O God, for the many times when I would visit Todd and even with his very limited mobility would extend his hands to have us join in a circle prayer together. Those sacred and thin place moments of prayer with Todd will always remind me of his quiet and humble faith.
O God, we long for that time in the future when sickness, pain and death will be no more. We long for that time when we will gather around that great heavenly banquet where there will be no more sadness or tears. That will be the ultimate thin place moment where heaven and earth will be as one.
Thank you for sending Jesus, who through his life, death, and resurrection, offers us abundant life here on earth, abundant life where we experience thin place moments in the midst of our everyday lives, thin place moments that give us great joy, thin place moments that lead us to dance and sense your peace and joy in our lives.
We pray all of this and all of the things that are deepest in our hearts and minds in the name of Jesus who taught us to pray together saying…
“Our Father, who art in heaven…”
No comments:
Post a Comment